Imperial Plastics

Imperial Plastics, Inc. was founded in 1968 and shortly thereafter became a subsidiary of Fingerhut Corporation. Imperial Plastics remained a subsidiary of Fingerhut until 1990, producing proprietary products for the parent company. During this time, Imperial grew in size to operate with fifteen molding machines, thirty employees, and 1500 square feet of space.

In 1990, Fingerhut decided to divest itself from Imperial Plastics and sold the company to John Gambell who had been the general manager of Imperial Plastics since 1975. With the Fingerhut proprietary business in decline, Imperial Plastics began to redefine its role and became a custom plastic injection molder. In 1993 Mr. Gambell added a 35,000 square foot expansion and by 1996 Imperial Plastics had grown to seventy employees, thirty-three molding machines, and 50,000 square feet of manufacturing/warehouse space.

On January 2, 1997, Norman Oberto purchased Imperial Plastics and very quickly accelerated Imperial’s growth plan. Mr. Oberto saw the opportunity to grow Imperial Plastics by converting metal parts to plastic. The growth model involved “inventing” plastic opportunities by working closely with customers engineers to redesign metal components into plastic parts and assemblies.

The company adopted a simple mission statement to “Create and Maintain Customers”. This was accomplished via a commitment of meeting, or exceeding, customer expectations through quality, delivery, service, and continuous improvement.

Over the next 20 years, Imperial Plastics grew by assisting customers with design, development, prototyping, and ultimately the production of plastic components and assemblies.  

Imperial Plastics has also become a platform company purchasing 5 custom plastic injection molders since 2004. Each acquired company has allowed Imperial Plastics to expand and diversify its customer base.

We are proud of our history, growth, and of the many long standing employees, customers, and suppliers who have contributed significantly to the Imperial Plastics story thus far and look forward to a very prosperous future ahead.